Mammoth Trip

This last weekend I went on a trip to Mammoth Mountain with some of my good friends. Because this blog is called board life, I am allowed to talk about snowboarding as well. The friends I went with were Camden Millington, Blake Siemens, Madeline Gunderson, Emi Thomas, Reina Williams, and Andreas Schuetz. They are all pretty cool and I would recommend you to check their blogs out. We all skied and snowboarded together and we had snow much fun. Snowboarding is way better than skiing and people who disagree are probably skiers and skiers are weird. We were all around the same skill level except for Andreas who was really good. I was definitely the slowest but i still had fun either way.

It snowed so much while we were there and there was so much powder. It was whiteout conditions though, which sucks because it is really hard to see. When you snowboard it is crucial to see where you are going so you don’t get lost or lose your friends. Snowboarding requires the ability to turn heel side and toe side which forms a s in the snow. When you are going faster, you make open turns and those help you maintain your speed. Open turns look like very compacted s’s in the snow. On a snowboard you can do tricks just like a skateboard, such as jumps, 180’s and Mannuals. The best thing about snowboarding is if you fall it doesn’t even hurt! 

When we finished skiing and snowboarding we would head back to Blake and Emi’s cabin. Their cabin was very big so we had lots of fun and played games. We even took an adventure to the jacuzzi, which turned out to be a mistake for the people who didn’t bring extra clothes. (Me and Camden) I lost  a pair of the socks I had been borrowing which sucked for Blake but I was just happy my feet didn’t freeze of running through the snow. All in all, my experience in Mammoth with all my friends was very good, and I will never forget it.    

The Ollie

Welcome back! This week I will be writing about the Ollie. The Ollie is a trick that allows you to get your board off of the ground like a jump. This “jump” allows you to go up or down curbs and also this is the most important trick to learn, because it sets you up for nearly any trick in skateboarding. This makes the Ollie the most important trick to learn. The Ollie was originally created by Alan Gelfand who started the ollie in bowl skateboarding, and Rodney Mullen took the ollie to flat ground skateboarding. The flat ground ollie is the trick I will be talking about as I have very little experience with Half pipe skateboarding and such.

The Ollie took me a really long time to learn because of the fact that when I learned it I was just learning how to ride my board and just cruise around my neighborhood. The Ollie was something that takes a lot of practice and steps to perfecting it because it is the first trick you should learn. The first thing you do is pop your tail down. Then you slide your foot up on the board and jump. This takes a lot of practice but once you get it down you get it down. The ollie is great for going up and down curbs, and is fun to do off of any ledge and go high off the ground.

The best thing to do if you are not getting the ollie is to ride around your street and neighborhood. Ollie(ing) an object is so worth the amount of time and it is so satisfying to learn for the first time. It is a easy and a hard trick at the same time because it is the first trick you learn. The ollie took me a few months to learn, so if you aren’t getting it immediately thats totally normal. You have to learn the ollie to do almost any other trick in skateboarding, which is bad and good because once you get the ollie down, it becomes second nature and doesn’t even feel like a trick anymore.

My Origins Of Skateboarding

Hi! My name is Jake and my blog is going to be about something I have a real passion for. Skateboarding! I first began to skateboard about a year ago, and once I started I couldn’t stop. Skateboarding felt natural to me, and every time I go skate, I feel like I am happy and always enjoy it. I have gone through a lot of boards at this point and I always love talking about skateboarding, so why not write about it.

There are many types of skateboarding such as long-boarding or down hill skateboarding, trick boarding, and many more, but this blog is about trick-boarding. Trick-boarding is my favorite because of the tricks. When I trick-board I feel like I am working to progress on a new trick or get better at one I already know. There are many different tricks and different variations to them, so the future blogs will be dedicated to my progress on those tricks and which ones are my favorite and whether or not I enjoy the trick. I will also explain where they are fun to do and off of what type of obstacle. Skateboard tricks have to be the best part of skateboarding, and there really is nothing better then landing a new trick or landing a trick off of an obstacle.

I first got into skateboarding about a year ago as I said, and this was because most of my friends had just started skating, so I figured why not give it a shot. Wow, I am so glad I did because skateboarding literally keeps me sane. My first board was a garbage board from online or something. I honestly can’t remember. My next board, and I’m not proud to admit was from Zumiez, and it was a decent board. All of my most recent boards though, are from our local skate shop, Lighthouse. Lighthouse is by far the best skate shop in Santa Barbara. Anyways, I am glad I get to talk about skate boarding in my blog, it is my favorite thing to write about.

Signing off,

Jake